Enhanced degradation of organic contaminant with bamboo shoot skin-based Fe/N co-doped porous hydrochar via persulfate activation

Abstract

On behalf of solving the problem of phenol pollution in water environment, Fe/N co-doped porous hydrochar (Fe-N-PHC) as environmentally friendly catalyst prepared by agricultural waste bamboo shoot shells (BSS) as biomass was utilized to activate persulfate (PS) on phenol degradation. Under optimal reaction conditions, the degradation efficiency of phenol in Fe-N-PHC/PS system could achieve 100 % within 60 min, which was much higher than that of PHC/PS system (43.6 %). The significant role of N and Fe species for phenol degradation was confirmed by XPS analysis. Notably, Fe-N-PHC had a rich pore structure, CO and pyrrolic N as active sites were in favor of producing reactive oxygen species (ROSs). At the same time, the edge defects and pyridine N on Fe-N-PHC played a role in enhancing electron transfer. In addition, Fe cycle occurred on Fe-N-PHC surface contributed to PS activation for phenol removal. Results showed that Fe-N-PHC/PS system had high reusability, strong adaptability in different pH (3.0–11.0), co-existing substances and water bodies, and the degradation efficiency of phenol was maintained above 75 %. This study enriched the way of agricultural waste resource utilization, and provided an economical and feasible method for innovatively preparing eco-friendly carbon-based catalysts for water pollution remediation.